Long Beach Cal SOAP to Award College Scholarships to Local Students

The past few months have been stressful for high school seniors as they have pondered their decision on where to attend college next year. Now that decisions have been made, the stress of paying for that decision continues.

The state and federal economy have made financial aid opportunities hard to come by. With the cost of college rising each year, more and more students of all socioeconomic levels are looking to apply for college scholarships.

Fortunately for students in the Long Beach California Student Opportunity and Access Program (Cal SOAP) area, there is an opportunity to earn a scholarship of up to $2,500.

Funded annually by a generous grant from the College Access Foundation of California, Long Beach Cal SOAP is able to provide financial assistance to low-income, first-generation college students who attend high school in the Long Beach, Compton and Whittier school districts.

Long Beach Cal SOAP will host its fifth annual Scholarship Awards Banquet on Wednesday, May 25, beginning 6:30p.m. at the Lakewood Country Club. This year, 75 students will be awarded a total of $165,000 in scholarship awards.

Since 2007, the Long Beach Cal SOAP College Access Scholarship program has awarded $474,000 to 235 individual students attending 34 different colleges across the country.

The California Student Opportunity and Access Program was established in 1979 to increase access to education beyond high school by raising the achievement levels of students from low-income and disadvantaged families and providing information on college access and financial aid opportunities.

The Long Beach Cal SOAP office was opened on the Cal State Long Beach campus in 2004. More information can be found at www.csulb.edu/calsoap .